Water
by ancarett
Summary: The title of personal assistant, as Pepper Potts finds, covers a lot of ground, especially when you work for a superhero with a penchant for tinkering.


_Note: Nothing belongs to me. Everything belongs to Marvel. Originally posted on livejournal. Beta-read by the incomparable elspethsheir._

* * *

"Pepper! PEPPER!" Tony Stark's voice rang out excitedly over the intercom.

"Miss Potts, I'm afraid that Mr. Stark is being quite insistent."

Pepper looked up from the comfortable couch where she was doing triage on her boss's overflowing email box in what had been an early morning hush.

"Don't apologize, Jarvis. Has he been up all night?" Pepper laid down her tablet and headed towards the stairs with a quick click, click, click of her high heels.

"Mr. Stark napped for an hour, I believe. He's been working on some modifications to his suit."

Pepper rolled her eyes as she descended the staircase. When she reached the glass doorway, she could see her boss almost bouncing with excitement as he stood on the arming stand with machines whirring around his arms, fitting the Iron Man suit to its maker.

Slowly, Pepper coded in her access key and opened the door to the workspace.

"Yes, Mr. Stark?"

"About time, Miss Potts. Do you have a swimsuit here? 'Cause, if not, I'm cool with skinny-dipping."

Pepper blinked carefully before replying to the initial question. "A swimsuit, sir? Whatever for?"

"To go into the pool, of course, Miss Potts," Tony replied. "Oh, and you'll need that." Despite the confines of the suit, Tony managed an eloquent gesture with his head towards the workbench where a digital camera rested beside a disconsolate robot.

"A swimsuit," Pepper repeated slowly, as she walked over to the bench. "And a camera," she added, as she picked up the device. "Are you hosting a pool party?"

"Nah, but that'd be fun. Especially if you're going to be going _au naturel_," Tony said with a lascivious smile. "We could have a party for two."

Pepper dipped her head to hide the tiny smile evoked by his tireless fliration. "I'm sorry to disappoint, sir, but I do have a swimsuit up in my room. However, I still fail to see what part of my job involves swimwear and photography at --" she glanced at her watch, "eight in the morning."

"Is it that late?" Tony asked with interest. "This took a bit longer than I expected." The last of the armour was fitted to his torso as he spoke, and he looked his suit over, awkwardly shifting his shoulders to catch a glimpse all around while the controls holding his helmet components waited patiently behind his head.

"How does it look?" he asked Pepper.

She shrugged as she stepped forward to circle around him. "The same as the last time I saw it, only without as many bullet holes and dents."

Tony frowned. "I've changed a lot since then. We're almost at a Mark IV, I figure. I just have to test some aspects of the functionality and that, Miss Potts, is where you come in."

Pepper laughed helplessly as she stood in front of her boss. Tony cocked his head inquiringly. "You still haven't said how," she managed.

Tony rolled his eyes. "That's because you're not in your swimsuit or naked. But I can wait." He arched an eyebrow and gave her a hopeful look.

Pepper crossed her arms and kept her eyes firmly fixed on her employer. "Jarvis? What is Mr. Stark intending?"

The smooth tones of the AI instantly filled the room. "Mr. Stark has been working on the subaqueous capabilities of the suit, Miss Potts, and, I suspect, wishes to test them."

Pepper wrinkled her nose. "Subaqueous? You mean. . . underwater?"

"He does indeed," Tony said, flexing his shoulders. "Theoretically, the suit would do just fine underwater in any case but I made a few adaptations to maximize performance."

"And so, I gather, I'm to record this development for posterity's sake?"

Tony nodded decisively. "I normally have my own cameraman for these moments –" he gestured towards one of the all-purpose robots, "but, sadly, he can't make it to the pool." The little machine's main arm drooped as if in defeat.

Tony Stark turned his gaze back to his quiet assistant. "So, whatcha waiting for, Pepper?"

Pepper backed up a few steps as the implications of his request sank in. "No. No. No! I am not doing this. What if it doesn't work? What if the suit fills up with water, shuts down and you drown at the bottom of your pool, Mr. Stark?"

His brown eyes met her gaze in speechless disbelief. Pepper forced herself to stand her ground.

"Do you really think I'm that bad of an engineer, Miss Potts?" The hurt in his voice was palpable.

Pepper opened and closed her mouth repeatedly at this, realizing that any response would simply magnify the problem. "Jarvis?" she asked helplessly as she worriedly stared at her waiting employer.

"Miss Potts, I have reviewed all of Mr. Stark's design modifications and I am convinced that the test will be a success," the AI cheerfully assured her.

Pepper dubiously eyed the gleaming suit. Certainly something that was built to fly in the air wasn't going to do that well in a swimming pool?

"You've got the Jarvis seal of approval," Tony said with mounting impatience. "Isn't that enough? Time's a-wasting, Pepper. Chop, chop!"

She stepped closer to the suit until she was right in front of him. Raising her chin, she met his gaze squarely and fearlessly. "I will not assist –" his eyes darkened again, "-- unless you show me the quick release mechanisms. If the suit gives out and you're at the bottom of the pool, I need to be able to get you out."

Tony nodded slowly at her demand. "All right, though it's completely unnecessary: this thing has an hour of breathable air. But if it'll put your mind to rest. . .guys!" At his final shout, the workshop robots rolled up obediently. "Show the lady all the secrets."

Tony's armour stand lowered to ground level and he grinned at Pepper as the first of the robots reached to his shoulder. "I always knew you had a burning desire to see me strip."

Pepper couldn't help the light flush that touched her cheeks. "Well," she said, crossing her arms again.

"Unh-uh-uh!" Tony said sharply. "It's a hands-on process. You're going to have to get your hands a little bit dirty." His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

She laughed again and obediently raised her hands. Tony interrupted one more time. "We'll put the helmet on and show you how it goes from there."

With a few economical swings, the foreboding helmet was fastened into place. Tony's mechanically-enhanced voice rang out. "Ready?"

Pepper squared her shoulders. "Ready, sir."

"All right, then. Showtime! Just below the jawline on the left and right there are small indentations. Push them up, yeah, like that, and then back. . . ." Piece by piece, Tony walked her through the external access to the main plates of the suit, not without a lot of wisecracks along the way. Pepper bit her lip in concentration as she absorbed the directions, handing off each discarded piece to one of the assisting robots. By the time she'd stripped her employer down to his black bodysuit, the worried frown still hadn't left her face.

"Hey," Tony said, gazing quizzically at his assistant, "you've got it. It'll be fine. Now I just need to get Tweedledee and Tweedledum to help me suit back up and. . . ."

"Tony," she said in a burst of fear, "that took almost ten minutes. You won't last that long at the bottom of the pool."

"You can always perform mouth-to-mouth," he suggested. "I'd like that."

"Tony!" Pepper cast around for something that might forestall this disaster. "Rhodey! Jim! Why don't you wait for him? He can have a whole crew of Navy divers on the stand-by."

Tony clucked disapprovingly. "He's off on some training maneuvers. Really!" He added the last at Pepper's wary look. "Won't be back until Monday. And Happy can't swim, so don't even suggest him."

While they spoke, the machines had reassembled the leg armour and were moving the back plates into place. Tony eyes were imploring. "I want to show him what this can do. And it'll be neat."

Pepper shook her head sadly. "And you'll just do this anyway if I say no, won't you?"

Tony widened his eyes hopefully. "Of course, though it won't be half as much fun and the pictures will really suck."

She sighed and his smile widened in triumph. "Okay, Mr. Stark. I'll go upstairs and change, then meet you at the pool. No jumping in until I'm there, okay?"

"Sure, sure. Don't forget the camera," he reminded her as Pepper walked towards the staircase and he raised his hands for the gloves to be replaced. She could hear the giddy anticipation in his voice.

* * *

As she opened the French doors to the patio, Pepper heard the telltale hum of the suit's thrusters and Iron Man slowly descended to the poolside surface. "Smooth, very smooth," she complimented her boss.

"Aw," his computer-modulated voice whined, "I was hoping it was a bikini."

"Sorry, Mr. Stark," Pepper said, with a tone that suggested she was anything but, "all I had was this one-piece." She slipped off the pareo and stood in the sunlight in a racer-necked black maillot.

"Getting better. But we'll have to do a little shopping when we're through," he said with a clear sense of mission. "California girls need bikinis."

Through the armour, she could clearly hear him humming snatches from the Beach Boys' song.

Pepper just pursed her lips as she slid off her shoes and flicked a hand over her sleek ponytail. Walking over to the pool steps with the camera in hand, she summoned a blithe smile to hide the terror making her heart beat at twice its normal pace.

"Test the camera underwater, Pepper," Tony directed. "Take some pictures of yourself for me to enjoy."

Pepper arched one immaculate eyebrow in his direction. "How about my feet, then?"

A heavy sigh emanated from the suit. "It's a start."

Pepper ducked underwater and turned on the camera. The red recording light shone brightly as she delicately flexed her toes and caught the footage in the viewfinder. Surfacing with a gasp, she placed the camera on the pool deck and hit the view button.

"It works," she said.

Tony cocked his head in the Iron Man suit. "Jarvis?"

"Sir?" The AI's voice resounded from the outdoor speakers and Pepper's worry dampened slightly.

"You're getting this all for posterity?"

"With Miss Potts, yes."

"Well, then, in three, two, one. Take a deep breath, Pepper," Tony ordered as he rose to hover above the pool.

Pepper poised herself, camera in hand, just at the pool's edge and tried not think about what all those miles of wiring and sheets of metal, electrical power and thrusters could do to the pool and them both.

"Ready, Mr. Stark," she said with a confidence she didn't feel.

The thrusters cut to just a flicker of power and the suit descended, surprisingly smoothly, into the pool. Water poured over the lip as Iron Man sunk into the depths and Pepper ducked her head under to record the descent.

_Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. KA-THUNK._

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as the suit seemed to sink to the bottom of the deep end. In the blue water, the lights at his eyes and limbs were almost invisible. Pepper popped her head to the surface as the camera continued to roll.

"Mr. Stark?"

His feet hit the bottom of the pool with a palpable but delicate thud and a sudden wave of bubbles rose up from the grooves in the suit, clothing it in a wave of disturbed water. Pepper's heart raced faster.

"Mr. Stark?"

She let the camera drop as her legs thrust out behind her in a swift scissors kick. In a moment she was a hands-reach away from the visor, preparing to start the emergency maneuvers necessary to save Tony Stark's miserable life so she could kick his ass to San Diego and back.

Then an armoured hand rose up to stop her.

"Why'd you stop filming?"

Pepper stared at Iron Man indignantly. As her eyes fully adjusted to the murky blue of the pool, the glow from his eyeslots was visible. The swarm of bubbles emerging from his armour had stopped and her momentum almost plastered her against the gleaming metal form.

Hastily, she kicked back and upwards to the surface while Tony leaned down to gently fetch the camera from where it rested at the bottom of the pool. His thrusters rumbled into activation and he rose to the surface.

Pepper gasped as she broke for air and determinedly stroked towards the side of the pool. Behind her, the thrusters whined louder and a small wave lapped at her as Iron Man rose above the warm water.

"You okay, Pepper?"

Pepper blew out a breath and pulled in another, slowly and with careful control. "I'm fine, Tony. Just . . . fine."

His metal-booted feet clanged on the paving as he laid the camera down on a table and strode over to offer her a hand. She pushed her wet hair back from her forehead then took the proffered assistance.

With surprising gentleness, she was lifted out of the water and stood beside him.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, Pepper. The bubbles were just from the ballast tanks. Makes me more maneuverable underwater."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then waved dismissively. "Don't worry, Mr. Stark. I'll be fine."

He paused and, again, the helmeted head cocked quizzically to one side. "Are you sure?"

Pepper smiled brightly. "Why wouldn't I be? All in a day's work and all that."

She moved past the silent Iron Man and over to the table where the camera lay, forgotten. "I'll get the footage sent to Jarvis so you can admire yourself, sir."

"And your shapely self, Miss Potts."

"And my foot, Mr. Stark." Deftly wrapping the pareo around her waist, she turned back to her employer. "If that's all?"

"Well. . . ."

"What, sir?"

"Could you get some shots of me heading into the ocean? This thing oughta do 2000 feet easy, but I'd just like to skim the surface?"

Pepper picked up the camera with a sigh.

"Fire away, sir."

In an instant, Iron Man was rocketing out over the Pacific Ocean. With careful precision, Pepper aimed the camera to shoot him dancing in and out of the waves of the quiet beach. A couple of surfers to the south, she noted, paused to watch the red and gold form rocketing through the water.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, Miss Potts?"

"Mr. Stark wasn't in any real danger there, was he?"

The AI paused long enough for Pepper to turn her head curiously towards the speakers. "Probably not, Miss Potts. The probability of a malfunction was very small. And, in any case, I had someone from the coastal rescue with a winch and an oxygen system standing by at the front gate in case anything went wrong."

Pepper heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Jarvis."

"It's always a pleasure, Miss Potts."

Pepper turned her attention back out to see where Tony was diving from a few hundred feet down into the ocean, then soaring back skyward again. After a while, he was jetting back to the seaside house, racing down through the tunnel to the workshop but not without a jaunty wave to the woman with the camera. Pepper thumbed the record button and returned to the house, ready to get changed and back to work.

As she headed to her room, from downstairs she heard a watery "whoosh" followed by a yelp and then the whisping of a strong, insistent spray, something like a fire extinguisher.

Ballast tanks? Water? Oh, yes, water. And, she supposed, a very wet workshop and its owner.

"Pepper? PEPPER!"

"Mr. Stark?"

"Hurry up! And get the shopvac, will ya?"


End file.
